A blog by Regional Leader for the North East and Midlands Elim Churches UK

Navigation

Post navigation

The Bible, daily.

Acts 17:11 “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

Paul is in Berea with his Scriptures proving Christ is the Messiah.

In this backwater of a place called Berea he found people who were more advanced than the Thessalonians in that they were noble or open-minded to the Bible, they received the message of the Bible with great eagerness and they examined the Bible for themselves every day.

The purpose of our life is to be re-shaped into the likeness of Jesus. Every sermon, book, every Bible verse we read , conference we attend , experience we have can be used by God to teach us how to grow in Him.

There is a cartoon of Charlie Brown at the beach building a magnificent sand castle. When he had completed it, he stands back and admires his masterpiece. Suddenly there is a downpour of rain and it flattens his brilliant structure.

The last caption Charlie Brown is looking at the levelled ground and he says, “There must be a lesson here, but I don’t know what it is”.

Are we open-minded to be taught from the Bible the lessons of life? And will the Bible teach us to be open-minded to the Spirit leading us in our life?

That is the purpose of my devotional blogs over the years. To try and open the Bible wider and deeper, I hope some of them do just that!

In the parable of the talents 3 servants were entrusted with talents according to their ability. These talents were amounts of money. The man with 5 talents and the man with 2 talents went to work immediately with a readiness to gain and they gained 5 and 2 more respectively. But the man with 1 talent was a pessimist, he didn’t even put it in a bank to get interest, but he dug a hole and buried it in the ground. He was not expecting his talent to grow.

After a long time their master came back home. To the servants who lived their life with eagerness and who had gained for their master more than what he had entrusted them with, he said “You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness…

“For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance.”

But the 3rd servant was stripped of his talent and it was given to the man with 5 talents and the master said

“Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

The parable speaks of the return of Jesus; his disciples must make use of their gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit that they have been given. But the point is they must live with a readiness. They must live expecting to produce and not hide away in negativity, like the Bereans who received with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily for themselves.